Hate the Religion - not the Religious

[cloudyday2]

I live a couple hours south of Waco, and so this one's kinda close to home.

The ATF was planning a broad daylight raid against the compound based on weapons charges. Not "individual agents with search warrants." Not "catch them asleep at night." They tried to roll the place like a special forces unit.

Problem was, loose lips sank the ship. Koresh knew about the impending raid, and even told an undercover ATF agent that he knew. The agent, in turn, tried to warn his superiors.

Nope.

Washington wanted to make an example out of someone.

The resulting fiasco could have been avoided, but wasn't. Not only did the ATF continue with the raid even after being told it was a no-go, we had one branch of the Justice Department ignoring the fact that another branch was attempting to negotiate a truce. That's right: Koresh had agreed with one group to surrender once he had finished hammering out his manifesto, but another group didn't want to wait because they didn't believe him. (He was, in fact, about halfway through when the second raid went down. A few more days and he'd have come along peacefully.)

Thanks, I didn't hear any of that. Unfortunately, it seems that federal agents often are bullies. If this abuse of power goes on in a democracy, imagine life under a theocracy. The only way I would feel comfortable in a theocracy is if Jesus or some similarly divine person was in charge.

 

[Ironhold]

Thanks, I didn't hear any of that. Unfortunately, it seems that federal agents often are bullies. If this abuse of power goes on in a democracy, imagine life under a theocracy. The only way I would feel comfortable in a theocracy is if Jesus or some similarly divine person was in charge.

Someone (just who it was has never been determined) tipped off a television station located in Waco. The folks in the newsroom figured that the raid would be a big event, and so sent a crew out to the site to film it. However, the crew got lost and so asked a random mail courier for directions. The courier somehow had ties to Koresh, and so the guy immediately notified Koresh that something had to be happening; otherwise the news crews wouldn't be on their way.

Koresh had figured that one of his newer followers was likely a federal agent; among other things, the guy accidentally showed off a professional level of marksmanship training during what was supposed to have been a friendly shooting contest with Koresh himself, then deliberately flubbed the next round in order to compensate. When Koresh found out, he flipped.

As far as the ATF goes, they didn't just try to go in through the front door. IIRC, they actually tried to send people through the upper windows as well. In order words, this was a military-style raid rather than a simple police swarm job.

The Wikipedia article on the matter is a pretty good primer, as it points out how the ATF botched the job at every step of the way before the FBI moved in and made it worse. Had the ATF's information been accurate, they could have peacefully arrested Koresh or either of two top lieutenants when they went to pick up shipments for a weapons dealership that the compound was operating. Instead, the ATF got ahead of itself and scores of people died for it.